The Flaws of Prison Labor Essay

As of now, the cost of operating prisons is on the rise, along with the number of people in prison. Currently, taxpayers are spending between $20,000 and $25,000 annually on each individual prisoner (The Third Branch, Costs of Incarceration and Supervision). A proposal to reduce the cost of imprisonment is to put the prisoners to work. Within the next five years the prison population is expected to increase and is estimated to cost an additional 1.6 million dollars (The Economic Impact of Prison Labor). “If half of the prisoners could be employed by private enterprise during that time, their work would reduce taxpayer costs by almost $9 billion per year.” (The Economic Impact of Prison Labor)

For over centuries, the only form of punishment and discouragement for humans is through the prison system. Because of this, these humans or inmates, are sentenced to spend a significant part of their life in a confined, small room. With that being said, the prison life can leave a remarkable toll on the inmates life in many different categories. The first and arguably most important comes in the form of mental health. Living in prison with have a great impact on the psychological part of your life. For example, The prison life is a very much different way of life than what us “normal” humans are accustomed to living in our society. Once that inmate takes their first step inside their new society, their whole mindset on how to live and communicate changes. The inmate’s psychological beliefs about what is right and wrong are in questioned as well as everything else they learned in the outside world. In a way, prison is a never ending mind game you are playing against yourself with no chance of wining. Other than the mental aspect of prison, family plays a very important role in an inmate’s sentence. Family can be the “make it or break it” deal for a lot of inmates. It is often said that “when a person gets sentenced to prison, the whole family serves the sentence.” Well, for many inmates that is the exact case. While that prisoner serves their time behind bars, their family is on the outside waiting in anticipation for their loved ones to be released. In a way, the families

There are many people who are critical of the US‘s prison sysetm; the idea of locking up those who commit crimes against a society simply to keep them from doing harm. Many say that more rehabilatation is necessary to improve these individuals and, therefore, society as a whole. What are some ways of doing this? Do you agree/disagree with this view and why? Is the prison system currently in place the best option for society? 2 pages, double spaced, 12pt. font.

American prisoners receive free medical attention, housing, meals, utilities, use of exercise equipment, and laundry services. The cost of these services amount in the billions of dollars a year and government budgets are straining to accommodate these fiscal requirements. “There’s special urgency in prisons these days,” “As state budgets get constricted, the public is looking for ways to offset the cost of imprisonment” (Brown). This economic concern requires work programs to aid in the relief of financial burdens incurred from convicted criminals. Once found guilty of a crime the prisoner needs to take responsibility for the costs incurred. Prison labor has evolved from the day of hard labor, breaking rocks, and making license plates to

Elam Lynds (1784-1855) was the first warden of Auburn, New York prison and creator of the Auburn system. Lynds was also a pioneer of prison inmate labor and believed in hard work, which in return will help inmates obtain useful skills they could utilize after release (Kania & Davis, 2012). From a financial standpoint, “Prison labor may be used to generate revenues to support the operations of prison environment” (Doss, Sumrall III, &

A second key argument advanced for the abolition of prisons is the failure to rehabilitate with imprisonment. Rehabilitation is supposed to permit the individual to be restored to a law-abiding citizen, contributing to society. However, abolitionists argue that prisons do not permit this. First, schooling and work within prisons is supposed to allow individuals to become productive citizens in society. However, “In many prisons, especially the old ones, the work which is offered is to a large extent meaningless (placing advertisement material in envelopes, folding tobacco packets), or simply non-existent”. (Mathiesen, 2008, p. 34). This work experience is therefore without benefit to the prisoner upon his release.

Prisoner outsourcing in the United States is originally attributed to New York’s Newgate Prison in 1802. The prison was able to contract with local manufactures, effectively offsetting rising prison costs. By 1825, prisons throughout the country, including Auburn, Baltimore, Charlestown, and Wethersfield, were realizing profits resulting from “prison contracted labor industries.”

Employment is always an issue when it comes to an ex-offender. Not only is it hard for the everyday person in society to find employment due to a poor economy, but it is much harder for an ex-offender. While in prison, prisoners are usually made to work. Unlike other programs such as counseling, prison work programs can be justified for reasons other than rehabilitation of the individual offender. From the perspective of the policy maker in the criminal justice system, they can help manage the population by occupying the time of the prisoners, aid in the operation of the prison, create revenue (maybe), and provide a

The United States prison system struggles eminently with keeping offenders out of prison after being released. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than third of all prisoners who were arrested within five years of released were arrested within six months after release, with more than half arrested by the end of the year (Hughes, Wilson, & Beck, 2001). Among prisoners released in 2005 in 23 states with available data on inmates returned to prison, about half (55 percent) had either a parole or probation violation or an arrest for a new offense within three years that led to imprisonment (Durose, Cooper, & Snyder, 2014). Why are there many ex-offenders going back to prison within the first five years of release? Are there not enough resources to help offenders before or/and after being released from prison.

Within this paper, you will find a comprehensive review of the United States prison system, and why it needs to analyzed to better support and reform the people of this country. I plan to persuade the other side (politicians and society) into seeing that the way the prison system is now, is not ethical nor economical and it must change. We have one of the world’s largest prison population, but also a very high rate of recidivism. Recidivism is when the prisoners continuously return to prison without being reformed. They return for the same things that they were doing before. So, this leads us to ask what exactly are we doing wrong? When this happens, we as a nation must continuously pay to house and feed these inmates. The purpose of a prison needs to be examined so we can decide if we really are reforming our inmates, or just continuing a vicious cycle. What is the true purpose of prison besides just holding them in a cell? There must be more we can do for these hopeless members of society.

The minimum security is federal prison camps adjacent to other federal prisons near military bases. Male prisoners who need only minimum security are set up in camps and those who will be transitioned [Passive voice] back into society and served their sentence will be set-up in a halfway house.

In this world we live in many feel that prisons exist to punish, not counsel, offenders. That may be true that Prisons exist for punishment, but they also have an important contribution to make to reducing re-offending by engaging prisoners in rehabilitation programs and purposeful work. Society is flawed in its thinking that by putting criminals in a place away from society we would be better off. To make it worse I am sure that more that 60 percent of Americans are against social reform because they have made up their mind that once a crook, always a crook. This is flawed mainly because it seems to assume that showing people that what they've done is wrong will always accomplish something, that punishing those who commit crimes

Correctional facilities have been gradually changing over time. The introduction of education is one of the advantages that come from the modern day prisons. Many prisoners are now able to read and earn educational accolades which in prison. Such people as this paper has found out fit better after their jail term in the society. There are thus programs set aside in order to help prisoners gain special skills which help them to secure jobs after their sentence. Those who gain these skills in prison do not indulge in crime after coming from jail as they are more occupied and easily earn an income for themselves. This paper looks at more advantages of this program and how it can be further enhanced to reach even more inmates.

Private prisons, especially for-profit prisons, pose a serious ethical dilemma. While private prisons may offer some budget relief, it comes at a serious ethical cost. Prison and criminal justice systems should not make a profit based on incarceration. Since the 1980’s, harsher sentences have led the prison system to focus less on rehabilitation and more on incarceration. Consequentially, focusing on punishing criminals rather than rehabilitating them leads to a higher rate of imprisonment, as prisoners continue to

part of the answer to this problem is to put prisoners to work. It makes no sense to deprive inmates of work, especially since they owe serious debts to others, including times, "outmates" and taxpayers. Yet our jails and prisons do little or nothing to provide productive work opportunities. Once upon a time, the common wisdom was that prisoners should work but now it's mostly banned. Opponents claim that it's unfair